- Who This Book Is For
- What This Book Is About
- Questions This Book Answers
- How This Book Is Organized
Questions This Book Answers
Dozens of books cover the technologies and research in this area by addressing the question "How does it work?" but no one is answering the hard question of "How valuable is it?" The aim of this book is to describe the value of interweaving computing throughout our everyday activities across work, life, and education to create new business opportunities.
A term such as Ubiquitous Computing obviously covers a lot of ground, so it's important to identify the segments and technologies that can generate breakout value, as opposed to those that will simply grow as part of the natural progression of technology and business process refinement. Conversely, which technologies are not likely to live up to their hype, and why? Which technologies will reinforce each other, and which will cancel each other out? What steps should you consider to position your business for these transformations? What should you build, partner with, or buy? What barriers will your business need to overcome in adopting Ubicomp-based business models?
What if during the course of reading this book it seems that your business is likely to be on the losing side of coming transformations? In addition to taking comfort from the notion that a rising tide raises all ships, you'll also see points of weakness that you can leverage to slow or redirect the change elsewhere. Yes, I'm a proponent of Ubiquitous Computing, but we all need to protect our business position at least long enough to find a value position in the new order. What barriers can you erect against the competition? Can you erect impediments anywhere to cause the surges to expend energy prematurely?